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Interview with Dolores Sales (Via Campesina Guatemala) at the World Social Forum in Dakar

The 2011 edition of the World Social Forum (WSF) began last Sunday 6th February, with a demonstration in the streets of Dakar, Senegal, where the echoes of the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt could be heard.

Bolivian President Evo Morales was one of the speakers at the opening act. He analyzed the uprisings as a “rebellion against the US imperialism”, while he declared to be a participant of these fora, which began a decade ago in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Dolores Sales, member of the National Indigenous and Peasant Coordination of Guatemala, which is a member of La Via Campesina Latin America told Real World Radio that La Via Campesina believes that the WSF is a fertile area to promote its campaign against land grabbing, to demand an agrarian reform and for the recognition of the Declaration of Peasant Rights by the United Nations.

Dolores pointed out that the land issue “belongs to humanity because it is related with the right to food”, so there is growing interest from other sectors in the demands made by La Via Campesina.

Some of these demands are the global consultation on the climate crisis and Mother Earth rights, which are to be carried out next year.

Today the peasants are fighting capitalism and its aim to control natural resources and the agri-food chain that goes from land, to seeds and the food markets. Therefore, the message of La Via Campesina transcends rural boundaries.

The Central American peasant leader said the presence of Evo Morales was important to make the demands that will come out of the WSF materialize in policies that will bring about specific transformations to the countries.